Observation of Gender in Patriarchal Authoritarian Society - Research Paper Example

Observation of Gender in Patriarchal itarian society. Experienced and observed through William Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain. Observation of Gender in Patriarchal Authoritarian Society The society in which we currently live can be called in part as a patriarchal society or a male dominant society. To consider the role of women in such a society is just as we are considering some negligible part of society. Women, at times, are not considered as human beings but as property or possession, who have less rights of governance as compared to men on their own destiny. Women as they appear in the works by great writers, are not sometimes portrayed in their real form but as men want to make them. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Frazier’s Cold Mountain, the treatment to women in relation to patriarchal authoritarian society is depicted. In this essay, I will examine the treatment of women in relation to patriarchal authoritarian society by considering examples from Macbeth by Shakespeare and Cold Mountain by Frazier. This issue is explored in both texts and can be viewed from a variety of perspectives, such as authoritarianism and ideas of God as a dominant father figure. An exploration of the theme of patriarchy requires a discussion of authoritarianism, which is apparent in both texts. Authoritarianism applies to political and social organizational ideologies which psychologically dominate those within a society. It is used in maintaining and enforcing control through the use of oppressive measures. “And further, she refused to name the father, denying Junior his just revenge. He set about instead to divorce her, but the judge had declined to grant one on the grounds that Junior knew she was a slut when he married her (Frazier 1997).” In one example, Junior is denied his right to mate and his right to take his revenge against the “thief” who had impregnated his wife, as if it was someone stealing his property. He sets about to divorce her. She has no right of her own to do so. The judge denies a divorce for she’s a slut for not being monogamous to her partner, but because Junior is not a slut himself as he is a male. “-What’s your name? Inman asked the girl. -Lula, she said. -No, it ain’t, Junior said. He turned to the girl and glared. Say what it is, he said. -Mama says it’s Lula, the girl said. -Well, it ain’t. That’s just the kind of cathouse name your mama would come up with. But I do the naming around here (Frazier 1997).” The father’s aggressive attitude over the naming of a child at her mother’s will indicates the authoritarianism of the father, who is a representative of a patriarchal society. He is unable to give the girl’s mother her right of naming the child. Junior as a representative of a patriarchal society considers it his duty to name his child, as being in a patriarchal society; he enjoys the right, freedom and independence, not the girl’s mother. The servitude of the female is observable when for example Junior asks the girl to ignite the tobacco. “Then he addresses the girl. Light, he said. She arose with a certain amount of disturbance and gapping of her dress skirt and went into the house and returned with a lit shuck (Frazier 1997).” The treatment of the girl is as if she is a slave. Junior uses his authority to treat the girl as a slave. It is because of her being a female that she is treated in a manner such as this example depicts full authority of the male. “But then the girl twisted and squealed out like a rabbit mat the end of an owl’s stoop, and Inman could see Junior’s pincered fingers retreating from the vicinity of her bosom. -Junior, goddamit, she said. Lila returned to her seat on the steps and sat with a forearm pressed tight against her breast and Junior smoked awhile, and then Lila moved her arm and there was a tiny spot of black blood soaked up into the cloth of the front of her dress. Junior said, Get these bitches to feed you. I’ve got a mare to check on down in the lower pasture (Frazier 1997).” Junior is a clear representative of authoritarian patriarchy, as he makes a brutal use of his authority by causing pain to the girl. He attacks her sexuality, as he injures her bosom. The girl is shown as a repressed creature, as she feels pain but is unable to complain. She is treated as an animal, even worse than an animal. With full authority, Junior asks her to ignite the tobacco and then with full brutality and by making misuse of his authority, he injures the girl, who suffers the pain and identifies herself as something inferior. Lila returns to her place beside Junior accepting him as an overly authoritative figure that enjoys every right to exercise on her. “Woman’ seems to be associated with qualities -emotions, fears, -one has against one’s will, and ‘man’ with preferable mode of existence (London 2004).” The same issues of patriarchy can be noticed in the text Macbeth by Shakespeare. It was believed that patriarchal authority was so strong that Lady Macbeth was convinced to do work usually performed by a male as she would need to call for divine intervention. “Come, you spirits, that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top full, of direst cruelty (Macbeth, I.V. 40 – 3 )!” The words by Lady Macbeth indicate that she wants to be in a man’s role, in authority. She wants the powers to “unsex” her, which means that she wants no more to play a woman’s part because she is aware of the role of women in a patriarchal society. “Here’s the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand (Macbeth, V.I. 48 – 9 ).” Macbeth’s desire of divide and conquer patriarchal authoritarian society is ever present from his defeat of Macdonaldwald and the Norwegian King where he receives the title from the present King, the thane of Cawdor then executes the King and crushes those who object. The world of Macbeth is regarded as a male dominant world where there are battles, the ultimate expression of patriarchal masculinity, from the start of the play to the end. The men are shown fighting furiously like beasts. It is a masculine world where feminine features are fully eliminated. Lady Macbeth also takes over a masculine role by negating her own role in a male dominant society. For example, Lady Macbeth goes to kill the king with the dagger that is considered a male’s role. Men are considered right for killing and warfare and in Macbeth, there are battles and killings in the play and males are shown fighting in the battles with weapons. “Had he not resembled/ My father as he slept, I had don’t (Macbeth, II. II.12 - 13 ).” Lady Macbeth is unable to kill King Duncan as he looks like her father. Patriarch being father, one can observe the patriarchal authority present here. Lady Macbeth sees King Duncan as her father and father can be seen in patriarchal society as a dominant figure. Lady Macbeth fails to kill the king not because after seeing the king, there was some daughterly love and respect in her heart but being a member of patriarchal society, she was restricted to kill a dominant male figure of patriarchal society. The texts must be considered in the historical context in which they were written. In renaissance times patriarchal authoritarianism was present through man’s constant struggles for the acquisition of wealth or conquests for status, power and rule. It was seen to be the nature of the beast, the natural order of things. Patriarchal authoritarian society in Renaissance spoke a constitution in which, “Any such sign of helplessness by a man could be construed by members of his society as unmanliness, thus rendering him undeserving of the privileges one gains by having been born male (London 2004).” During the, “Elizabeth England, women were clearly socially subordinate (London 2004).” “The belief in the existence and power of witches was widely believed in Shakespeare’s day as demonstrated by the European witch craze, during which an estimated nine million women were put to death for being perceived as witches (The Burning Times 1990)”. What better example to demonstrate patriarchal authority then the deaths of nine million women to ensure patriarchal dominion through burning to death. The portrayal of women as witches is a clear depiction of authoritarian patriarchal society. In Macbeth, to give the role of witches to women is to depict that women can play a negative and disadvantageous role in a society. It was a man who allotted the role of witch to women and due to which, there were many killings of women afterwards regarding them as witches. In “patriarchal society the one controlled is the wife, it is this role Macbeth most closely identifies with (London 2004).” Both Cold mountain and Macbeth provide interesting examples of how gender is constructed through social circumstances. Irene khan said, “Patriarchal authoritarian society where women are seen as sexual objects, a society where the whole emphasis is on woman’s body as a piece of property that is owned by others and therefore women cannot control their lives (Khan 2006).” “One day when the husband was off plowing she had gone out to dip water from the well. When she bent over to catch the bucket, Junior said he came up behind her and threw her skirt over her back. The way he told it, she was drawless under the skirts, and he said she tipped her hind end up and stood on her toes. He had her right there, bent over the pit of the well (Frazier 1997).” Also present is patriarchal authoritarians, “where women are seen as sexual objects (Khan 2006).” This is visible where, “Junior said he came up behind her and threw her skirt over her back (Frazier 1997).” For hundreds of years and even today patriarchal society has made females stay away from conflict and violence. ‘O gentle lady! ‘Tis not for you to hear what I can speak, the repetition in a woman’s ear would murder as it fell (Macbeth, II. III. 85 – 87 ).” In Cold Mountain, Ada stays at home while Inman goes to war, then latter all males of a certain age are conscripted. Today women are still held back from serving in the frontline and violent or aggressive sports such as boxing and football. If they are there, they’re required to wear armour further adding to the depravity. It also shows their ignorance of social studies considering Queen Elizabeth I (a woman) defeated the Spanish Armada when she was outnumbered 2:1. In Patriarchal Authoritarian society a variety of perspectives and ideas of god and male as a dominant father figure are analyzed. Any discussion of these texts must consider gender and sex, and their context of time, culture, custom and convention. After all the discussion about the presence of authoritarian patriarchy in both the works, it is quite clear that male dominancy was found in the works as both the works reveal the presence of male authority but in a different sense. Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing (Macbeth, V.V: 19-23) References Buffie, Erna Wr 1990, The Burning Time, Dr. Donna Read. Frazier, Charles 1997, Cold Mountain, Grove/ Atlantic Press, USA. Khan, Irene, Tony Jones speaks with Irene Khan, Australian Broadcasting Corporation 10 October 2006, Online accessed 1 November 2006 http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2006/s1778209.htm London, Maurice G 2004, A Mutual Infirmity: An analysis of androgyny Online accessed 10 November 2004 http://www.thefirmament.com/mglondon/research/macbeth.htm Pitt, Angela 1983, Shakespeare’s Women: Shakespeare’s Tragic Women, Hodder and Stoughton Press. Shakespeare, William 2005, Macbeth, Harvard University Press, USA. The University of Mississippi, William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), Macbeth Background Information, Online accessed 31 October 2003 http://www.olemiss.edu/courses/engl205/macbeth.html Traub, Valerie 2001, The Cambridge companion to Shakespeare: Gender and Sexuality in Shakespeare, Cambridge Publication, Cambridge. Read More